The not Jane Doe referral

By letter to Senator Kamala Harris during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation proceedings on Brett Kavanaugh, the committee received an allegation of rape committed by Judge Kavanaugh (as he then was). The handwritten letter was signed by “Jane Doe” of Oceanside, California. Kavanaugh was asked about the Jane Doe charge and a transcript of his testimony denying the allegation was released. Justice Kavanaugh testified: “[T]he whole thing is ridiculous. Nothing ever — anything like that, nothing . . . . [T]he whole thing is just a crock, farce, wrong, didn’t happen, not anything close.”

Then Judy Munro-Leighton stepped forward by email to announce, not that she is Spartacus, but that she was “Jane Doe” of Oceanside, California. She nevertheless shares a trait with Senator Spartacus. She turns out to be a fabulist, just like he is.

As committee investigators followed up, nothing checked out. She isn’t from Oceanside. She is a left-wing activist. She is decades older than Kavanaugh. She lives in Kentucky.

Indeed, she admitted that she “just wanted to get attention.” She further conceded “it was a tactic” and “just a ploy.” When asked by Committee investigators whether she had ever met Kavanaugh, she responded: “Oh Lord, no.” Booker, by contrast, is sticking with his many stories and may actually have met Kavanaugh.

Senator Grassley has referred Ms. Munro-Leighton for investigation of potential violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 (materially false statements) and 1505 (obstruction) for materially false statements she made to the committee during the course of the committee’s investigation (letter and exhibits embedded below). As Shannon Bream commented via Twitter, “This is quite a read.”